Neandertals - Big Kids

Galvasean

Neanderthal youngsters that made it to the "terrible two's" were large, sturdy and toothy, suggests a newly discovered Neanderthal infant. The child almost survived to such an age, but instead died when it was just one and a half years old.

The remains of this infant -- a lower jaw and teeth unearthed in a Belgian cave -- are the youngest Neanderthal ever found in northwest Europe, according to a study that will appear in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Since the remains of two adults were also previously discovered in the cave, the fossil collection may represent a Neanderthal family.

If the trio said "cheese" for a family portrait, their smiles would have been hard to miss, since Neanderthal front teeth were larger than those for modern humans.

When the infant died, "he already possessed Neanderthal characteristics, notably a strong mandibular corpus (toothy part of the lower jaw)," lead author Isabelle Crevecoeur told Discovery News.

Full article here.

marco_polo

Interesting research showing that Humans develop more slowly than neanderthals did from birth. Neoteny has long been suggested as a signifigant factor the evolution of hominids since our split from the great apes, it is interesting to see the application of the theory to more fine graned timescales within the hominid branch.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101115161143.htm
Compared to even early humans, other primates have shorter gestation, faster childhood maturation, younger age at first reproduction, and a shorter overall lifespan. It's been unclear exactly when, in the 6 to 7 million years since our evolutionary split from non-human primates, the life course shifted.

Smith and her colleagues found that young Neanderthals' teeth growth -- a proxy for overall development -- was significantly faster than in our own species, including some of the earliest groups of modern humans to leave Africa some 90,000 to 100,000 years ago. This indicates that the elongation of childhood has been a relatively recent development.

Such studies add to the growing body of evidence that subtle developmental differences exist between us and our Neanderthal cousins. The recent sequencing of the Neanderthal genome has provided tantalizing genetic clues pointing to differences in cranial and skeletal development between Neanderthals and modern humans.